So what is the church? Is it the people who gather each week at 1669 W. Maple Drive? Is it the church building that exists at that location? Is the church all believers in Jesus Christ around the world? Is it just some of the followers of Jesus who believe certain things? Is it a human institution (rules, regulations, budgets, etc.)? Is it a holy institution (a locus of the presence of God in Christ)? Is it a hotel for saints or a hospital for sinners?
Over the centuries these and other descriptions have been used to define the thing that we call church. If we are to cast a vision for our church it might be worth taking some time to think about the church.
The place we need to begin is with the realization that the followers of Jesus were not always called either Christians or the Church. In the beginning those who followed Jesus were called The Way. In some ways (no pun intended) I think this would have been the most appropriate name for the Christ centered community. The Way reminded Christ's followers that they were on a journey to discover and live out the love and grace of God they learned from Jesus. It was a reminder that faith was about adventure and growth. It was a reminder that we never arrive but are always becoming those persons God wants us to be.
Relatively quickly the name The Way lost out to two other designations: Christians (to describe individual followers) and the Church (to describe collective followers). The word church in Greek is ecclesia. It was a term that referred to a group of people who are called out of a larger community to meet for a specific purpose. It was often used to describe a meeting of citizens who came together to make decisions. In a sense then the followers of Jesus took an existing term, redefined it and made it their own. While the church thus had a name (the church of God at Ephesus, meaning the people at Ephesus called out by God for the purpose of following Jesus) it still had to figure out what it was.
We are indebted to the Apostle (meaning a person sent for a specific purpose…and in the Christian sense, one sent to found churches) Paul for his work at defining the idea of church. Paul used a number of images to describe the church but the primary one was that of the Body of Christ. The image is a powerful one because it reminds us of two key things.
First it reminds us that the church is not simply a human institution (though it often operates like one). The church instead is a living, breathing entity drawing its life from its head, Jesus Christ. This realization ought to help us avoid the temptation to become so immersed in the "business" of running the church that we forget that our purpose is to exist as the arms, hands and heart of Christ in the world.
Second it the term reminds us that just as a body has many parts so does the church. The Apostle Paul spends a great deal of time talking about being a member of the church…by which he does not mean a member of an organization, but a physical member such as a hand or a foot. The idea is that each of us is given certain natural and spiritual abilities which we are to use to make the Body of Christ function properly. Thus membership becomes not about privilege but about service.
Our vision then ought to take into consideration the unique nature of the church; that we are called by God to live out the way of Jesus in the world. This is a task to which no other organization in the world is called nor empowered to do. This is our task, and one which I hope we as people of the Promise are proud to undertake.
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